


Haunted

by alisonkay



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Comfort, Drabble, Found Family, Gen, Nightmares, Post-Titty Twister
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-26
Updated: 2014-04-28
Packaged: 2018-01-20 22:36:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1528202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alisonkay/pseuds/alisonkay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Series of drabbles surrounding the infamous Gecko Brothers and a god-loving teenage girl, post-vampiric judgement day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

She wakes up with her heart in her throat and her fingers clenching into a fist around a weapon she left behind in the desert dust; the whirring, chugging sound of metal sawing into flesh blaring through her mind. It takes a moment, two, and then air fills her burning lungs as she heaves in a sobbing breath, her hands dropping to her sides despite her fingers still clutching fists, her palms burning with the sensation of nails on skin.

She’s not sure if it’s because she was thrashing in her sleep, if she was screaming out loud while she dreamed, or if it is because they simply know—like they know so many things she never could explain—but the door adjoining her motel room to theirs opens and then there are two figures silhouetted by the light coming through the windows. Richie enters first, like he always does when she has nightmares, and comes to her side. 

She tries to hold it together. She’s done this too many times to count now, and she hates that she does it still, that she needs them to be there to make her feel safe again, to make her feel sane. They’d gone through exactly what she had, only they managed to come out of it whole, their family stronger than ever. She’d lost her whole world. They’d helped her build a new one, damaged though it was.

"We’re here, Kate." Seth says from the doorway, his strong features somehow softened by the shadows in the room. The mattress dips as Richie sits beside her, and it’s almost as if it isn’t her own doing when she leans against him for support, almost like gravity is willing it. He wraps a sturdy arm around her sweat-dampened shoulders and she feels a tiny bit of the terror around her heart loosen and drift away, like an iceberg breaking into chunks. Much of it remains, even more under the surface, but the Gecko brothers are heating her oceans, and she’s just waiting for the last polar bear to die. 

"I hate them." It’s a harsh whisper that comes from her lips, and she doesn’t remember feeling it make it’s way up her throat, doesn’t remember it forming in her mind as a thought. It’s true though, in more ways than one. She hates the creatures who stole her father and brother, she hates her father and brother for dying, she hates the brothers for bringing them there in the first place, she hates God for creating monsters, she hates herself for being too weak to stop any of it.

There is a whole lot of hate in her, and it’s almost funny now, how she’d never thought herself to be the hateful type. 

"We know." Seth validates her rage, nods his head slowly as Richie’s thumb rubs small circles onto the skin of her upper arm. She wonders sometimes if they are not actually one person, and then she thinks of course they are. It amazes her that they sometimes let her be a part of them, too. 

"We’re going to make it better." Richie says very close to her ear, and a tremor runs through her. She’s not sure in which way he means, but she knows he isn’t lying. Richie has always been honest with her. It was part of what drew her to him in the first place. 

She nods her head slowly, and her fists finally unclench in her lap, but they are so stiff she can only loosen them partially, “We’ll kill them all?” 

"All of them, Kate. Not a single fucker gets to live it’s miserable eternity." She closes her eyes and lets out a breathy sigh, thanks the heavens for Seth’s bold words and Richie’s unfailing truth. 

Her world may have flipped over like a ship in the ocean, but she had washed ashore ragged and new, a rougher, tougher Kate. She’d chainsawed monsters in half, bathed in their blood and been christened into a new kind of faith. 

She is going to be okay, and the Gecko brothers will make sure of that.


	2. And I'm trying to change your mind.

It only takes four curt notes from the cellphone before a large hand nearly crushes the thing, pulls it close to a scrunched face, a thumb swiping the too-bright screen. A flash of numbers, three o’clock in the morning and a private number. He knew who it was even before he spoke.

"Hello?" He asks the person on the other end, and the delicate sigh that blows through the speaker and right into his ear let’s him know he was right. Nobody else even has this number. Nobody else ever calls. 

"Kate, it’s late." Richie sighs as he rolls over, his free hand running the length of his face, rubbing sleep from the corners of his mind.

This is not the first time she’s called him, not the first time he’s woken from a dead sleep to her tiny sighs and hushed breathing. She won’t talk probably, usually doesn’t. It’s something to do with comfort, he knows that. It’s why he never mentions the fact that he only gave her this number in case of trouble. Real trouble, too, not the 'I can't sleep because I dream of vampires and the only thing that brings me peace of mind is knowing you and your brother are out there somewhere, still alive and hurting the things that hurt me' kind of trouble.

There is shuffling on the other end of the line, a slight thud and then the sound of breathing. Richie’s eyes drift closed and he wants to hang up, wants to tell her to just go back to bed and let the monsters fill up her head. He can’t do it, wish it though he may. She is Kate, and he is Richie, and there is something to that, some otherworldly bond that had less to do with having spent a night fighting for their lives together, and more to do with them.

"Tell her we’re coming through Texas next month." Seth makes himself known from the bed a few feet to the left of Richie’s own, his voice hoarse with sleep and yet lacking any annoyance. Seth is never annoyed when Kate calls, though Richie often thinks he ought to be. 

"We’re coming through Texas next month." Richie parrots obediently, his eyes opening once more to stare at the dark ceiling as his hand free of the phone rests on his forehead. He doesn’t see things like he used to, doesn’t have a blood-sucking demigod dictating his every move, but he can still sense things, can still see. He can certainly see the way Kate’s eyes light up, even staring at the stucco above him.

"You’re still not coming with us, though," He injects quickly, before she can form the words he knows she wants to, "We’re passing through, we’ll visit, we’re not staying and you’re not coming." 

The silence is heavier than he had expected. Then a huff, the sound of blankets rustling, and the line goes dead. He pulls the phone away from his ear, squints at the screen for a moment as if he were confused by her reaction.

"You’re a dick." Seth mumbles, then shifts in his own blanket fort, falling back into sleep as smoothly as he had woken. 

"Well, I wasn’t lying." Richie mutters seriously, despite the fact that no one is listening anymore.

They couldn’t stay in Texas, not the infamous Gecko Brothers, and they couldn’t take her with them. Kate is still a young woman, emotionally aged, sure, but still youthful in all the ways he covets. He won’t ruin her life any further, won’t expose her to more violence and more monsters and more pain.

A sigh passes by his lips, and he sinks into the lumpy motel mattress. Some nights he wishes he’d never met the embodiment of purity that was Kate. If he hadn’t, he imagines he might have given in to Santanico, may have become a vampire, sucked his own brother dry.

In that world, he surely wouldn’t have been woken up at three in the morning by a teenaged girl. In that world, he certainly wouldn’t have gone back to sleep actually satisfied by the mere fact that Kate was alive and acting just like the teenager he was always accusing her of being.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently, this is a thing that is happening multiple times. Oops. I was listening to 'Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?' by the Arctic Monkeys and this somehow happened, so...I dunno. Not that she's high or anything, just the three AM phone calls and...yeah, okay. Leave me a comment if you like it!


End file.
